Amadi, A I and Higham, A (2018) The trickle-down effect of psycho-social constructs and knowledge deficiencies as organizational barriers to cost performance on highway projects. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 23(1), pp. 57-72. ISSN 1366-4387
Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to proffer a theoretical narrative explaining the poor financial performance of public highway agencies in Nigeria. This study critically spotlights seminal works in the literature offering theoretical narratives on the poor financial performance of public infrastructure projects, to discuss whether they adequately capture the relationship between psychological factors, project governance/leadership issues and knowledge/skill deficiencies related to the cost performance of infrastructure projects in the developing world. The evaluation reveals the predominant contextual exclusivity of these theoretical narratives to the developed world, which tend to under-represent developing countries, such as those on the African continent. Design/methodology/approach: Using a case study research strategy, longitudinal documentary/archival data for 61 highway projects were analyzed. In total, 16 interviews were also conducted with highway officials from the three highway agencies responsible for the execution of the projects. A two-stage deductive-inductive thematic analysis of the collated data was carried out to identify barriers to the financial management of public highway projects, the result of which is cognitively mapped out. Findings: The study showcases empirical insight on cost overruns experienced in Nigerian public projects, because of the trickle-down effect of human and organizational environment, as well as because of workers' knowledge/skill deficiencies. Research limitations/implications: The developed theory is contextual to Nigeria, and there is scope for testing its generalisability to other developing nations. Originality/value: The in-depth trajectory provided uncovers an intricate web of technical and psycho-social, organizational and institutional issues, which have not been identified and explained by previous theoretical narratives.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cost growth; developing countries; highway infrastructure; psycho-social constructs; public works |
| Index terms: | strategy, developing nation, interview, developing country, agency, cost performance, methodology, narrative, financial performance, public project, organizational environment, thematic analysis, cost overrun, Nigeria, financial management, case study, public infrastructure, governance, testing, highway infrastructure, infrastructure project, highway construction, public work |
| Subjects: | professional practice, financial and cost management, economic analysis, data collection methods, business, sociology, infrastructure and transport systems, management, business analysis, research methods, economics, civil engineering, qualitative and interpretive research, Geography, methods and analysis, development economics, infrastructure engineering |
| Topics: | Governance, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Organizational Design, International Construction |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here